Easy Embellishing:
This felted toy or Christmas ornament is really all about your embellishing skills rather than your knitting skills. Using a swatch of felted knitting, the project is simply cut out, embellished and sewn or needle felted together, with or without a bit of stuffing inside.
Once you start making these sorts of toys (they make great cat toys as well) you'll find it hard to stop if you've got a good supply of leftover felt bits in the house.
Materials:
- a piece of felted knitting roughly 6 inches square (mine started out as Natually's Naturelle Double Knit, worked on size 9 needles for 25 stitches and 40 rows, then felted)
- a cookie cutter or other shape of your choice (mine's a gingerbread man)
- a marker
- tools for embellishing as you like such as buttons (not for babies, of course), embroidery floss, beads, yarn, etc.)
- needle felting mat and tool, or supplies for sewing by machine or by hand
- a bit of stuffing (optional)
Instructions:
- Determine how to fit two copies of your chosen design on your felted swatch and trace the outline lightly using a marker on the side that will be the back.
- Cut out the pieces.
- Decide which piece will be your front and embellish it (and the back, too, if you like) as desired. I used French knots for the eyes on mine and sewed two buttons from my stash down the front.
- Either needle felt or sew the two pieces together, right sides out, by hand or machine, adding a bit of stuffing inside if desired before closing up all the edges.
